Yesterday I paid a visit to the Singapore Flyer - or at least the shopping mall below it.
With some help from flickr I thought i'd show you guys some samples from this lens.

From below. Pretty, isn't it?

Without the 'accidentally-left-in' fern at the top right, this might have looked like some ginormous fountain(I think). I put Gordon's "How to make water look dreamy" tutorial at www.dslrtips.com to good use for the first time! Quite impressed except I had some difficulty holding it steady at 1/4 exposure, even with SuperSteadyShot turned on.

Portrait shot of my shadow. I ain't that tall - its the late afternoon sun. I know it might have been better with the sides cropped out.

This is what happens when you underexpose it at -1EV.

And this is what happens when its at -0.3EV. I like the way the sun's rays peeked in.

I thought it might have the "just woke up" feel in your eyes if I switched to manual focus and blurred the whole thing out. Whaddya guys think? By the way it wasn't that dark - I set to -EV(unknown number of stops). VERY UGLY dust speck I just found after seeing this photo at its Large size. I'm off to clean it after hitting 'Submit'.

After leaving the mall I thought i'd give my panning some practice. I know I shot this too early, the car might have been better with some more road behind it. After some scrutinising you can see the driver is on the phone while his two kids are fooling around in the back.

Everyone's comments are most certainly welcome!

Off to clean his lens from dust specks,
SnS

P.S.: Sorry the page width broke.

P.P.S: Guys, I'm going to start work on a small gallery for my 75-300mm lens soon

Last edited by SCREAMnSHOUT on Fri Jun 05, 2009 6:56 pm, edited 2 times in total.

hey SREAMnSHOUT i'm really interested in getting myself a sony for a lot of reasons but one of them is how much more i like the kit lens that they come with. I'd like to see more pics if you've got 'em and maybe post some shots that you've got with your 70-300. Much appreciation in advance.

hey SCREAMnSHOUT i'm really interested in getting myself a sony for a lot of reasons but one of them is how much more i like the kit lens that they come with. I'd like to see more pics if you've got 'em and maybe post some shots that you've got with your 70-300. Much appreciation in advance.

No problem, JB,

I am currently working on my 75-300 collection - already got 4-5 shots labelled for posting here.
Also increasing my 18-70 collection by the day, if you have any special requests for shots, feel free to ask and I will do my best to get you those shots.
As Gordon said in his review of the 75-300mm, its really a good option to include it for a big coverage of 18-300mm.

Greetings, fellow CL members! I think the older ones haven't heard from me in a while and the new ones haven't heard of me at all! Haha, just kidding. I'm not that old.

Here are some crops from multiple photos of the same scene with exactly the same viewfinder-framing(tripod mounted, not moved) taken with the Sony A200 + SAL 1870 lens at 18mm (widest setting). Differences are in exposure value (sorry, by accident), aperture value(intentional), and shutter speed (to keep exposure value similar). More details below.

Purpose of this is to test the sharpness of the Sony DT 18-70mm lens at various aperture values while at its widest focal length setting of 18mm.

The photos were taken on 11:26pm at night with the only light source being a single circular fluorescent light ('diffused' by translucent plastic cover) on the ceiling above.

This is the main scene photographed, uncropped. (f/6.3, 2") 1024 x 685

These are the crops placed in one image. 1024 x 743
1st column from the left is the Top Left of the photo.
2nd column from the left is the Centre Left of the photo.
3rd column from the left is the Centre of the photo.
4th column from the left is the Centre Right of the photo.
TOP TO BOTTOM (horizontal rows): f/3.5, f/11, f/22

Primary conclusions:
1) Centre sharpness is rather similar throughout, differences (if any) are not very discernible to me.
2) Corner sharpness is best at f/11, with most DOF at f/22, and pretty crappy at f/3.5.
3) Chromatic aberrations (CA) seem to get lower with narrower apertures.
4) Overall sharpness is best at f/11.

PLEASE NOTE: Only f/3.5, f/11 and f/22 have been tested at 18mm for this lens.
My apologies: Photos get darker as the aperture goes wider (due to poor metering on my part?).

As I am now having my slightly-packed-with-activities mid-year school holidays, I will try to find more time to test this lens on my camera at different settings on various subjects.

If you would like to see max. resolution crops, please reply here or PM me.

SnS

P.S. to Moderators: Hope I've kept to the new rules which were introduced while I was away! Maximum 1024 pixels on longest side if there only are a couple of photos. (I assume the 2nd collage is considered as one image)